


Grape Medicine

by CityEscape4



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Based off an RP timeline, Gen, mention of Iris as an adopted hellshark kid, mentioned hellshark, platonic tomos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 00:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15521931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CityEscape4/pseuds/CityEscape4
Summary: “I refuse to believe that a spoonful of medicine could be the undoing of the Barian King.”





	Grape Medicine

**Author's Note:**

> Based around an RP, as well as a ‘caring for the other while sick’ mini-prompt.

It hadn’t been long at all since Ryoga had come down with a bad case of the flu, much to the Barian King’s displeasure. Thomas would have taken care of him, but the middle Arclight was off defending his title as Asian Champion, and the rest of the Arclight family had gone to watch.

Originally deciding to be stubborn about it, Ryoga had intended on staying at the Arclight’s manor (where he was now living with Thomas) figuring he’d be able to take care of himself. But when Rio and Durbe learned about this, they were both there within mere seconds, dragging him back to the Kamishiro mansion, Ryoga getting earfuls from both of them. He’d argued, saying that if he got them both sick, there’d be no one to take care of Calem, so he was just better off back at the Arclight’s manor.

But his protests were in vain, as Rio and Durbe talked between each other, one deciding to take care of Calem and Iris, the other deciding to take care of Ryoga until he became well again.

At the moment, it was midday. Durbe had walked into Ryoga’s room, with medicine and a soda in hand, only to find the Barian King sleeping, his cheeks flushed with fever. Putting the medicine and drink down on top of his dresser, Durbe stood at Ryoga’s bedside, placing a hand on his head, frowning at it still being warm.

Ryoga’s eyes slowly opened, blue hazily focusing on the figure of the person before him. “Hnn… Durbe?”

Durbe blinked at hearing Ryoga’s voice, pulling his hand away from the other’s forehead. He hadn’t meant to wake Ryoga up, but to be honest, Ryoga was gonna have to wake up anyway to take his medicine. “Sorry,” the silver-haired male said, an apologetic look on his face. “I was just trying to see if your fever went down.”

Groaning slightly, Ryoga sat up, coughing as he did. “I’m fine,” he said stubbornly, causing Durbe to frown again.

“No, you’re not.” Durbe argued back, “not with a cough like that. And not with that fever, either.”

“I said, I’m fine.” Ryoga argued once more, attempting to get up out of bed, only to be grabbed at by his shoulders and pushed back down by Durbe. “Durbe, let me go.”

Durbe shook his head. “You need to take your medicine first.” He let go of Ryoga’s shoulders, reaching over to pick up the medicine and spoon that went with it.

Ryoga made a face at seeing the kind of medicine it was: liquid medicine, grape flavored. He was practically gagging already. “I’m not taking any of that.”

Durbe rolled his eyes at that, knowing already this was gonna be a struggle. They’d had been giving him pills before, which Ryoga had been fine with taking. But when Rio and Durbe realized they’d run out of capsule medicine, and Durbe pulled out a liquid medicine that had the same effects as the pills out of the cabinet, Rio informed him that getting Ryoga to take liquid medicine wasn’t going to be easy. “Ryoga, you need to take this. The bottle even said it was grape flavored.”

“Disgusting.”

“I refuse to believe that a spoonful of medicine could be the undoing of the Barian King.” Durbe deadpanned, not amused with Ryoga’s behavior.

“It’s not, but I’m not going to take it.” Ryoga countered, icy blue glaring at gray.

Durbe glared back at Ryoga, before sighing. “Actually,” He said rather matter-of-factly, “you’re actually going to take this without a fight.”

Ryoga scoffed and folded his arms. “You keep telling yourself that.”

But Durbe simply smiled and said nothing, beginning to open the medicine bottle. And while he seemed completely relaxed and convinced that Ryoga was going to willingly take his medicine, Ryoga only felt an uncomfortable silence.

“…So what made you both decide that it was gonna be Rio watching Calem and Iris and you’d be with me?” Ryoga asked, mostly to break the silence and to stall for time so he didn’t have to ingest that crap. Though at the same time, he was curious why it was Durbe taking care of him. (though to be honest, he wasn’t sure who woulda been worse to be stuck with, him or Rio). He’d thought Rio would do it, and Durbe would stay with Calem and Iris, since out of all three of them, he was the best with children.

“Well,” Durbe said, measuring out the oozy purple liquid onto a spoon, “Rio needs to feed Calem. If she was taking care of you and got sick, he almost definitely would too.”

Ryoga sneered at the medicine, knowing that was gonna taste fucking awful, but looked to Durbe with a curious frown. “Feed Calem? What, you don’t know how to make a bottle with baby formula?”

Durbe laughed a bit at that. “No, I know how to make a bottle. It’s just… Well,” Durbe looked away momentarily, trying to word what he wanted to say properly. “Calem doesn’t always get a bottle.”

Confusion was still evident on Ryoga’s face, “What? Well how else is Rio gonna feed…–” It took a moment, but realization soon hit the Barian King, who quickly made a face of disgust. “That’s gro–” Before he could finish talking, his tongue was assaulted with cold metal, and his mouth quickly filled with the repugnant taste of artificial grape flavored medicine, which slowly leaked down his throat.

Durbe however, had a triumphant look on his face. “Well, that’s one spoonful down.” He said somewhat smugly as Ryoga acted like Durbe had instead fed him a spoonful of pure, liquid death. “One to go.”

Ryoga coughed and spluttered, breathing in heavily like he’d been submerged in water for the longest time. “What was that?!” He growled out as he glared at Durbe, who still looked proudly triumphant.

Durbe pushed up his glasses, not looking the slightest bit intimidated by the angered Barian King. “It’s not my fault you’re being a child. Even Calem could take this medicine better than you.”

Ryoga merely scoffed and rolled onto his stomach, burying his face into a pillow and groaning out, “I hate you.”

“I know, Ryoga.” Durbe said with a nod as he began to pour a second spoonful of medicine out. “I know. What a horrible and spiteful person I am, wanting you to get better. I’d hate me too.”

At that, Ryoga couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit, moving to where only half of his face was covered by a pillow, staring up at Durbe with one eye. "Idiot knight.”

Still, Durbe smiled, putting the medicine bottle down on the counter, and moving to sit on the edge of Ryoga’s bed. “You know, Rio warned me that you’d be stubborn about taking your medicine. I just didn’t think it’d be this bad.”

“That’s probably the real reason she wanted to watch the kids; So she wouldn't get stuck with me.”

“Well, there is a specific reason she wanted to just stay with Calem and Iris.” Durbe admitted, looking almost ashamed. “She just didn’t want you to know yet.”

Ryoga frowned, moving to sit up a bit, wanting to know what Durbe was talking about. “What didn’t she want me to know?”

At this point, Durbe looked rather sheepish, like a child who’d been caught trying to steal from the cookie jar. “She just didn’t want to risk getting herself sick and hurting the baby, that’s all.” He insisted.

Sighing in exasperation, Ryoga let himself fall back onto his pilllow, no longer sitting up. “Look, I get it, she didn’t want me to get Calem sick. But I’m getting better, so they’ll both be fine.”

“… Calem’s not the baby I’m talking about.”

There was a silence between them both, before Ryoga sat back up, blue eyes wide with surprise. “Wait… Rio’s preg–” Again he felt a spoon violating his mouth, and another batch of putrid purple sludge invaded his tastebuds again.

“Aaand that’s two.” Durbe said with a smirk, pulling the now empty spoon out of Ryoga’s mouth. Closing the medicine bottle and wiping the spoon with a napkin, looking over at Ryoga, who’s hand was over his mouth as he swallowed down the grape medicine. “And no, she’s not. But I needed you off guard again to get you to take your last bit of medicine.”

Ryoga scowled at Durbe, blue eyes practically glaring daggers at the silver-haired male. “That was low, Durbe.”

“Maybe, yes.” Durbe said, reaching over to get the soda he’d brought in along with the medicine, knowing that would wash out the medicine’s taste, as well as its carbonation help with Ryoga’s stomach, “But now you’ve taken your medicine without much trouble, and don’t have to worry about it again. I’m heading to the store after this to get more of those capsule pills you take alot easier.”

“I still hate you.” Ryoga said before he quickly downed the soda to flush his mouth of the horrible taste of grape medicine.

“I know.” Durbe conceded, getting up from the bed and grabbing the empty glass from Ryoga. “I’ll be back in a minute. I’m going to head downstairs to get you something to eat.” With that, Durbe left the room, leaving Ryoga to lay back down against the bed, slowly drifting back to sleep. He was only woken up by the sound of his door opening, and Durbe coming in with a tray that held a bowl of soup, another glass of soda, and a small bag of Goldfish crackers.

Ryoga sat up, allowing Durbe to place the bedtray down, and picked up the bag of Goldfish, looking at is suspiciously. “What’s with this?” He asked.

Durbe fought back a grin. “That’s from Yuma. He stopped by earlier while you were sleeping to see if you were any better, and left this for you. He said, ah…” Durbe began to grin, amusement clear on his face. “He said that maybe eating these will make you feel like a big, tough Shark again.”

Ryoga was silent for a few seconds before deadpanning, “I’m going to kill him.”

Durbe couldn’t help but laugh now, and held his hand out. “I’ll take them downstairs and give them to Iris or something.”

“…I didn’t say I didn’t want them.” Ryoga muttered as he put the bag back down, and began to pick at his soup.

Durbe smirked, and began to walk out of the room. “I’ll come back in a little bit then, and check back up on you.” Durbe’s grin only grew as he added on, “Maybe see if you’re feeling like a ‘big, tough Shark’ too.”

Ryoga’s only regret was that he didn’t throw his pillow fast enough to hit Durbe in the face before he closed the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Yuma knew exactly what he was doing.


End file.
